


Microscopic

by Perfica



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-22
Updated: 2006-01-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:05:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perfica/pseuds/Perfica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Sam did to make Jack and Daniel happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Microscopic

It started out as a rash on Daniel's left hand. Sam first noticed it as she stood in front of her slides, talking about the planet they'd just returned from. Daniel scratched at it absently, fingernails from his right hand slowly moving up and down the red patch of inflamed skin, barely breaking the surface. As far as she could tell the scratching didn't bring him any relief.

The Colonel was at the other end of the table, waggling a pencil and trying to get that rubber-thing happening, but she knew him well enough to not get offended. PT3-something something something, and if she thought about it hard enough she knew she'd remember the designation, but it was something she never wanted to consciously think about again.

Before long it had spread up Daniel's elbow. Sam noticed it on Jack's palms, and a little bit of it in the shadow under his jaw, right near some whiskers he'd missed shaving.

By the time it had spread to the rest of the Colonel's throat, both of Daniel's arms were covered in the fuzzy green-grey fungus and Janet told her confidentially, in between sobs and shots of vodka, that she couldn't get it to stop.

They were put in isolation, beds side by side. Sam made it part of her midday routine to stop by, key the mike and say hi. She told them she hadn't given up, they were still looking for answers, and tried her hardest not to look at the two of them as if they were fish in a bowl. Daniel was always scratching and complaining -- which surprised her because she'd always thought he'd be the stoic one -- but the Colonel was the one who'd looked her straight in the eye and kept up the optimistic conversation.

When she went past at night, last stop, final check-in for the day before going home and not getting any sleep, Teal'c would be standing guard in the shadows of the observation booth, protective of his charges. They'd pushed the beds next to each other so they could whisper in the low-lights of the mountain's night time, each stretching a hand out through the bars on their bed to the other. Jack was the one that talked the most, steady and sincere as he stroked Daniel's hand. Later, he lay next to Daniel, petting what was left of his hair as Daniel talked in his sleep, mumbling against Jack's neck. Their legs twined, and Sam couldn't see the space between them for all the strands of hyphae.

It was her idea; something that came to her on the edge of waking up, panting and near tears with the possibility of maybe giving them a gift, one last pleasure to enjoy. It was the stupidest, most dangerous thing she'd ever contemplated doing, and she knew both men would have stopped her if they had been in their right minds. She harangued Janet. Teal'c provided silent support, and she was almost sure that General Hammond looked the other way, but she couldn't be certain because the possibility of contaminating their world was far too great and she didn't know how much he loved his men.

The military had forgotten, in the depths of their mountain, that they were connected to the surface through unconventional means. When the mountain was first dug out, hundreds of miles of railway tracks had been laid; for carting rocks, for transporting workers, for traveling to the next town. She'd made Daniel and the Colonel put on protective gear, even though they both moved slowly and every scrape of material against their bodies caused pain. She got them through the corridors in the middle of the night. If you were to playback the cameras' recordings during those hours, you'd see nothing but bare concrete walls and colored lines.

She got them into a small railway car, one of those funny-looking ones that should be in a museum. Teal'c provided the grunt work and after a while he gasped with every heavy up-and-down movement. She bit her lip at every sound, held a torch steady towards the front, made sure that the way was still clear. Jack and Daniel sat propped up, plexiglass face-masks turned towards one another. Jack was smiling even though his pupils had turned white. Daniel kept his hand on Jack's thigh.

When they got to the top, there were still a couple of hours before dawn. Sam figured they could have at least an hour on the surface before they needed to head back and, even though she would have loved to sit and talk with them, if they were to have anytime with nothing between their faces and the sky, she and Teal'c needed to hike away a mile or two, sit on top of the next rise and keep an eye on them with binoculars.

She told them what to do and where she and Teal'c would be waiting. Even though they'd stopped talking out loud, she thought Daniel might have said something funny or quirky or just plain contrary enough to cause a look of delight to break out over Jack's face. In their many years of working together she had become accustomed to the two of them being able to have whole conversations with just a look, but now she felt even more uncomfortably out of the loop.

By the time Teal'c was sitting comfortably cross-legged under a tree and she'd propped herself up on her elbows and stomach and had trained the binoculars down on them, Daniel and Jack were out of their suits and lying on the blanket that would need to be burnt before they returned. It was cold; the chill made her clench her teeth and she could feel her erect nipples rubbing against her bra, and her calves twitched occasionally, but Daniel and the Colonel had stripped off entirely and were lying naked next to each other, shoulders touching, looking up at the stars. When Jack leant over and kissed Daniel on the mouth, she looked down at her watch and counted the minutes.

When their time was up, she shook Teal'c's shoulder and they made their way back down without looking at them again. She knew, because she knew these men, that when she and Teal'c picked their way carefully down the loose shale hillside to the curving, rusted tracks, that they'd still be there, bathed in moonlight, surrounded by bare rock and dry scrub. Even if they'd walked, there'd be no place to go, and she hadn't left a method of self destruction with them, but she figured if they'd wanted that badly enough, Jack would have found a way for both of them.

After that trip to the surface, things got worse in a hurry. Daniel had moved permanently into Jack's bed and, more often than not, their foreheads touched and their arms curved up over their heads, creating a cocoon of privacy. They'd forgone scrubs and blankets, and their skin was mottled and covered in fine filaments that swayed hypnotically with the pressurized air that pumped into their room. Trays of food lay forgotten by the door.

The day she couldn't tell them apart was the day Sam cried. Teal'c's grip on her shoulder was hard and had hurt, and she had reached up and squeezed back just as hard. Jack and Daniel had moved closer, fallen into each other, and she couldn't see bone or flesh or hair, just two piles of greenish fluff that were vaguely man-shaped.

Weeks went past and the forms collapsed, until what was left could have been scraped up and bottled. With Janet's help and very precise instructions, she had lifted them up gently and placed them into a petri dish. The General had ordered they be confined, and she knew enough about biology to know that if the petri dish was put into an incubator they'd feed off the nutrients provided in the agar and grow. They'd be strong and virulent, and not even the most talented mycologist would be able to tell their strands apart.

Instead, she put them in a refrigerator, where the steady cool temperature would halt their growth or decay. She thought of them as in suspended animation, and wondered if they were still able to communicate with each other, and what it was they were saying, and if they were still managing to hold each other close. She pretended she couldn't remember the code written on the bottom of the plate that has become their official joined designation, and still thought of them as Daniel and the Colonel.

Even though she wasn't consciously looking, when she found the planet she knew it was the one. It was green, wet and not entirely primordial. In the back of her mind she could hear her former commanding officer complaining already about the surplus of trees; could picture Daniel running his hands over the bark and in the dirt. There was no one there; no human life, and they couldn't find evidence that there ever had been. The fauna was small in size and number and chattered bravely to the team as they stepped out of the gate. The flora was lush; colourful and so beautiful that she felt her throat tightening even as she was beginning to plan.

Hammond wasn't that hard to persuade, and Janet packed the dish herself and accompanied Sam and Teal'c back to the planet. They wore contamination suits and the walk made them sweaty but they kept searching until they found a glade by a stream, the light silver-green and bright as it punched through the canopy. Janet put the petri dish underneath a tree that looked old and sturdy and removed the tape keeping it sealed. Teal'c said a few words in a language Sam didn't understand and bowed over them, tears falling from his face and hitting the plastic.

Sam knelt beside them and told them that she hoped she was doing the right thing and to be happy, please be happy, make this world their own. She took the lid off and backed away. The wind picked up and minute spores lifted and twirled in front of her face, before being carried away by the currents. She wanted them to be together.

When they returned to the SGC Hammond shook their hands and she locked the planet's designation out of their computer. It was the least she could do.


End file.
